


Suburban Living with A Feeling

by plumerri



Category: Hush Sound, Phantom Planet
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-01-17
Updated: 2010-01-17
Packaged: 2017-10-06 09:57:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,698
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/52412
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/plumerri/pseuds/plumerri
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When one door closes, will the same door open again?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Suburban Living with A Feeling

_Why'd you have to be so cute  
It's impossible to ignore you  
Must you make me laugh so much  
It's bad enough we get along so well  
Say goodnight and go_  
"Goodnight And Go", Imogen Heap

~

**in between**

Greta picks up the pile of scores that had covered the floor with a vengeance, and carefully stacks them into different piles based on time period. She takes out all the Hush Sound's music, and carefully filed them into the plastic ring files she bought from Staples. Gold Motel's music are already in another folder that she has tucked into her carry-on, which she could browse through while on the plane. She has a flight to catch, and she has a bed to warm tonight. The lyrics of that Augustana song rings out in her mind, something about tired of the cold, wanting to move to California. Greta can feel the emotions right now, for she is moving to California to start a new life for herself.

 

~

**before**

Alex flipped open his MacBook and started to surf the internet aimlessly, but then got reminded of something, and started iPhoto. He still had photos of everyone at Honda, and he had been meaning to print them out and give it to everyone after the tour (the idea came from all the polaroids Shane took), but then life happened, and then, well, the photos were still digitalized forms of memories inside his computer. At least they weren't deleted, which was what happened to _a lot_ of Garageband files in his computer when he ran out of hard disk space. He fumbled for his USB stick, and found one underneath the stacks of music scores on his desk, and transferred the photos over to the USB stick.

Tomorrow. He would pop over to a photo shop and get them printed, and then send them as postcards to everyone. He would call up Urie and Smith, seeing how it would be useless to get Ryan to do anything serious when the sun is so hot (and Ryan being so drunk), and try to get the addresses of the crew, and --, and he would email Greta for the addresses of her (ex) band.

He would.

He snapped his MacBook shut when the photos finished copying, and went to bed. It was probably the first night that he was turning in so early, without a drunken overture with Ryan. Sometimes he wondered if Ryan was a bad company, but then again that would be hypocritical, so, yeah. Sleep tight, he said to himself.

 

~

While Alex signed his name and wrote his contact number for the bored high school girl at the photo shop who was listening to La Roux on her iPod, he suddenly got reminded of what Greta said on the last night of Honda. _"Black is technically speaking, not a color, Greenwald."_ He smiled, and then handed back the form and the black gel pen to the girl, who must have thought that Alex was a strange man. Alex left the shop, whistling, and then stopped in front of a coffee shop. He took out his phone and searched for the nearest post office, so that he could get some stamps, but first he needed his pick-me-up.

He hadn't talked to Ryan for a day, and it didn't feel so weird. Last week when Ryan fell asleep for the whole morning (and afternoon) he felt weird, because he missed Ryan's drawl so much that he blasted their new album the whole day. Today, however, he was listening to So Sudden.

~

_Greta stood in front of the freezer, carefully thinking of which flavor she should pick. She always took a long time to deliberate on this, because it was vital for her to pick a flavor that she liked, but no one else liked, so she would get the whole tub to herself. But then again, there are too many people on tour for that to actually happen._

_"Get something with nuts. Most people are allergic to nuts."_

_Greta turned around, and felt a smile creeping up her face. She tried to look thoughtful, and commented, "Yeah, Doctor Greenwald? Since when you are the tour expert on allergies?"_

_"Since Jake had a breakout last week when he finished all my M&amp;M. Peanuts." He added, with a really wicked grin that reminded Greta of her favorite cartoon villains. _

_Greta shook her head in disbelief, and pulled open the freezer door. She took out lemon sorbet._

_"So you really don't trust me?"_

_"You're a creep, Greenwald. Stop following me around, I'm not letting you have any of my ice cream." But Greta grinned and dug into her pocket for money. Alex stepped forward, and took out his wallet. "There you go. If I pay for you, you will have to share."_

_"That's... Not a bad deal. You got it." She took Alex's wallet, and fished out a ten-dollar note._

~

Greta's voice was muffled over the phone, but Alex could sense her excitement. Apparently post service had really sped up in United States, because Greta had received the photos (already). "Oh my! Alex! These are, like, treasures!" Alex could imagine Greta, with all her glorious hair, being a four-year-old again, overly excited. Well, Alex hoped that Greta would not mention the photos to anyone else, because, well, he hadn't gotten the addresses of the rest yet and Ryan was huffy about Alex not joining him last week.

On a sidenote, Alex hoped that the girl at the photo shop had received the CD full of Phantom Planet demos. Because his band is always better than the current top 20 pop ~~music~~ rubbish.

It felt nice making all this small gestures for Greta, because Greta was a very nice girl, and maybe Alex just liked her a little? Just a teeny little bit, which was typical of Alex, because he tended to have crushes on the pretty and nice girls on tours.

Greta was no exception.

~

_Alex took a glance around the room. All the support acts were already here, and he recognized Justin and Joshua. Brendon and Spencer are settled into the biggest couch, and they left no space for Ryan and Jon. Alex could imagine the fuss Ryan was going to make later, but before that he needed to get himself settle first, being familiar with all the sights and everyone. _

_He chose the green couch, because partly he's impartial to the color green because of his last name, and partly Greta was on the couch too. They were not exactly close friends, but now and then they did talk to each other if they met each other. It was hard to keep up with all his friends and friends' friends, but Alex did try._

_Greta smiled at him, and said "Hello". Alex reciprocated the greeting, and asked, "Where's Ryan and Jon?" _

_"They're late, according to Brendon."_

_"Ah." _

_There was an awkward silence, that intermittent emptiness between the two of them, but Alex had already encountered it before. Most of the time, this was the time that would either make or break the relationship, and Alex thought that maybe it was a bad idea to sit next to Greta._

_Or maybe not._

_"So, are you excited for this tour?" Greta piped. Alex looked up, and his eyes twinkled unknowingly, because out of all the encounters he had had with people whom he had added on Facebook but had not had a chance to talk to in real life, this was the only one that continued without him doing so._

_"I'm fairly excited, I mean, Ryan is a good friend, so we're very happy to be here."_

_"That's a fairly standard answer, Mr Greenwald." Alex could not decide if Greta was flirting with him, so he decided to flirt back. _It wouldn't hurt, after all.__

_"Oh, really, Miss Salpeter? Now tell me, what is the correct answer to your question?"_

_"That you're happy to be touring with me."_

_"That's a lie!" Greta started to tickle Alex, and Alex started to giggle madly like a schoolchildren. Ryan and Jon came in through the door next to the couch, and Ryan looked at them, lifting his sunglasses like a spy, and muttered, "Really, kids?" Jon laughed._

~

Greta dyed her hair black once in junior high and she was utterly mortified by the color herself, so the next day she went out to CVS to get another tube of hair dye. She would never admit, of course, even if you asked her repetitively, that her reason of wanting black hair was because of her obsession with guys with dark hair. Though she would always lament that guys with dark hair tend to like girls with blonde hair, Greta thought that maybe she with darker hair will attract those guys.

Being fair-haired, she was always embarrassed in kindergarten when a nasty bully would call out, "Carrot-top!" across the playground, and then everyone would start to prod Greta until she cried running to her teacher. Miss Avery would soothe Greta with her thick British accent, and feed Greta some cheese crackers (her favorite) and apple juice.

So whenever she liked someone, from then on, she would do everything to hide her "carrot-top" in case her prospective partner preferred someone with darker hair. Once in junior high (too), she tried mixing coffee powder with her shampoo because of something she had read off _Teen Vogue_ and she smelled of coffee grounds the whole day. It certainly scared off Julian.

She suddenly had that flutter in her brain that told her to switch on her "carrot-top hider" mode.

~

Alex remembered on one of the nights he went out with the Hush Sound, Ryan, and they had a lot of fun. Or at least, Alex had a lot of fun, because they played bridge and for almost the whole night Alex got Greta as a partner even though it was by pure chance and luck. They won some sets, lost more sets, drank a lot of alcohol, laughed at Ryan, and did many more things which Alex could not remember, and he was sure that Greta wouldn't even remember at all.

~

On the last night of tour, Bob started to get whimsical. He started to sing _The Sound of Music_ at the top of his lungs outside the bus, and attracted _a lot of people_ across the barricade. Everyone had a good laugh, Greta had a good laugh _too_, but she felt a little bit dismal. The first nights of tours always made her feel claustrophobic and remorseful, like she was stuck in this endless tour, but then she would feel guilty for thinking that on the last night because touring was fun. For most of the time. A long time ago Pete gave her a poem that was written behind a Fall Out Boy shirt, on the last night of Black Clouds and Underdogs and from then on, it was almost an obsession of Greta to get the autographs of every single person she had toured with on that shirt. She might need to get Pete to pen on another shirt, or, maybe just another shirt with Alex's autograph only, just because. It was the kind of thing that a high school girl would have done on the last day of school, with maybe a photograph taken with her crush. Something that she could frame in a nice silvery metallic finish and put in her bedroom, and every morning she could wake up and do the whole regret thing.

Then again, people really did crazy things on the last nights of tour.

Alex and Ryan wrote a song that was the precursor to The Young Veins, even though both had no idea things would become like that, and Greta was sipping green tea with Bob while Ryan rocked out to the ukulele. She looked around. There was twenty minutes before soundcheck began, and everyone had gathered in the empty lot, whipping out their Sidekicks and iPhones and Blackberrys to get as many people's contacts as possible. Greta braced herself when she went out of the bus because there would always be this sudden mad rush of "Greta! I need your address!", etc.

Alex and Ryan finished the song, and Alex took a bow and winked at Greta, who was the only one paying enough attention, and Greta felt her heart sink positively. It always felt like this, on the last night.

~

In between 2008 and now Alex did see Greta, occasionally though. It was perhaps at a random gathering, or maybe Pete's party, or maybe at some party of Ryan, and so on. He did talk to her on Facebook, but that didn't count, to him. It was a rather insufficient attempt to try to reconnect, to try to find back what they had on tour. In Alex's life, there had been numerous goodbyes and so-longs, but Alex did try to reconnect with his old friends. He did ask Jacques to help him retouch his photos of Greta, but that was all. The only people he talked to on a rather frequent basis would be Ryan and his band and his good friends, but then he still felt that something was missing.

The morning when he was back to his own bed at his own house, he went online and started to accept the numerous friend requests, but was subconsciously looking out for Greta's request. When he finished clicking through all the request and Greta Salpeter is still not a friend of his, he dug out his phone from his bag and found thirteen missed calls and forty unread messages. Most was texts from his bandmates and tourmates about the end of another good tour, but there was one from Greta that went, "Hey. Great tour. I miss your add. Add me? gretamorgan.s@gmail. x". Facebook just had to hang at that point of time. One of the things Alex had to be grateful of in life would definitely have to be internet, because he was a full-frontal stalker, even though like every other stalker out there he would not admit that to himself.

After a few months of constant posting on each other's walls, their activities started to dwindle as Alex got more involved with JJAMZ, The Young Veins and his own solo project and a thousand and one things at one go (and reducing the time he spent on the internet), while Greta concentrated on her own solo project too. They occasionally texted each other when they read interesting tweets from each other, and when photos of Alex with Agyness Deyn started appearing, Greta sent Alex a well-wishing text. Alex felt like a jerk.

Then he justified to himself that Greta might not even like him in the first place, but Agyness at least did.

~

The thing about tour romances was that they always felt like a summer getaway: too short, but totally deserved. Greta had been warned against tour romances, by been-there-done-thats and everyone else. She was not an innocent, at the risk of sounding too Victorian, and this was not the first time, moreover. She was sure that she had a little crush on Patrick, but that was ancient history, besides everyone from Pete to the random merch crew had crushes of different sizes on Patrick. Patrick was cute, and adorable, and so likeable that it would be a crime not to fall in love (and out of) with Patrick the first twenty minutes you met him.

She wanted a little more with Alex, like perhaps finally acting on that harmless crush, knowing that the results would possibly induce days of tears and pints of ice cream. Maybe enough to appear on some random gossip site that deemed the two of them important enough to post something about it. Not that she wanted to be like Pete and the endless Hollywood starlets he was seeing, but, it felt good to be _recognized_. And _in love_. She would definitely admit to being lonely, because it was hard to replace that empty void in her heart. She's a people-person, she needed people, love and relationship around her to make herself feel more alive.

Greta could pick up her heart again, like always, but like every time this time it was a little bit harder, and more painful. She seemed to have cut her fingers from picking up the shreds from her broken heart. When she was saw the photos of Alex with Agyness Deyn, Greta sent Alex a text, wishing them well, and went to bed. In the morning the pillowcase was still wet.

~

Agyness Deyn was just a summer fling, everyone acknowledged but no one mentioned it to Greta, just in case she was not already heartbroken. _How did everyone know?_ Greta did not tell a lot of people about her harmless crush of Alex Greenwald for two years, but then many had guessed, including Bob. _Was she really like an open book?_ When they decided that The Hush Sound was going to take a hiatus (just like Phantom Planet, but not an indefinite one like them), Bob asked Greta out for drinks, something they had always agreed to do but never had the time to do so until now.

"Why, Bobby?" Greta pushed her hair behind her ear, and laughed into the phone.

"Because you are my best friend and I want to know what's wrong with you. I haven't heard a single composition from you that is happy."

"I'm just having a stage, Bobby."

"Everyone has them. Yours started from last year and is still going on."

"Then this break will do me good." Greta thanked whoever was out there that she was not facing Bob right now, because she was really a lousy liar.

When Alex replied back with a "thnks. x a" Greta called Bob and asked him out for drinks, and decided to tell Bob everything because fuck, it hurt. She cried that night on top of Bob's shoulders and fell asleep on her own couch while Bob cleaned her apartment.

~

Alex had a lot of fun with Ryan and Jon and Z and Tennessee and all the stoner crowds Ryan hung out with, but he actually missed the kind of company you would get on tour. From the bands to the crew to the groupies, they actually could provide a more substantial, varied and intelligent conversation, which Alex appreciated a lot. Alex once hung out with Gabe Saporta, and they spent the whole night discussing the merits of Kant's Categorical Imperative. (Which might not be the best topic, of course, but it was better than venturing towards Nietzsche's existentialism.) On the other hand, Alex did not really have much common topics with Z. Not saying that they weren't good friends, but sometimes Alex felt like a hypocrite when drinking with them, because he could think of hundred and one (better) things to do.

When Greta emailed Alex that she would be in New York City, Alex thought that the glimpse of hope was unreal. He spent a whole night thinking of really bad angsty lyrics that could describe the (hypothetical) love between two (hypothetical) persons, and then spent ten minutes crushing everything into balls and using them as shooting practices.

He replied back to the email welcoming Greta and suggested some hotels. It was all he could do, after the whole silence and the Agyness debacle. At least he felt a little better, less of a jerk, and a little tingly feeling in his heart. Of course, he flew out to NYC the next day, on the pretext of some work with Ryan and Jon, but he knew that he had other motives.

~

Greta smiled a little when she read Alex's email, but did not want to get her hopes high up. The last time she did that she got a downright rejection from the quarterback in her university. That was really painful and she remembered her mother comforting her for at least two weeks. But of course she stopped moping around after that and then got better at relationships, maybe not that much better but still sufficiently good. Enough.

She packed lightly for the trip at first, but then considered thoroughly after a midnight call with Bob, that maybe she should get out of her house and see the world a little bit more, a little bit more personal, a little bit more wilder than touring. She took out her Louis Vuitton luggage that Pete insisted to buy for her while they were in London and started to pile her jackets and dresses neatly into the case. It seemed that she would never acquire impulsiveness, but then again, who knows?

Then she put in the black Folie a Deux shirt (that Pete taunted her for ten minutes before agreeing to send her one, immediately) on top of everything, with a silver marker. She pushed everything down and tried to zip the suitcase shut.

~

Gold Motel was a name suggested by Alex when they met up last week in New York: he was there with The Young Veins, and she was there alone. It felt weird to be alone, selling her ideas to record execs, without Bob by her side. Then she met Alex at the lobby of the building and they broke out in laughter when they saw each other.

"You here too?" Greta smiled, feeling tendrils of her hair bobbing across her cheek. Alex pushed the stray tendril and tucked it behind her ear, and then gave Greta a conspiratorial smile. "Yeah. Your hair never change."

"Somethings never change, Greenwald."

"Oh yeah, Salpeter?"

They went out for dinner and talked about the airport, luggage claims and life. Nothing had changed.

~

Her plane was delayed, Alex noticed. He did not mention to anyone that he was meeting Greta, but somehow Ryan found out and now they were having this conversation on Twitter regarding the merits of waiting at airports versus waiting at train stations, by quoting Voltaire. Ryan was weird, Alex knew, but there was a limit to the weirdness he could stand so he kept his phone into his bag and started to people-watch, while watching for the display to change to "ARRIVED".

When the plane _did_ arrive, Alex counted twenty-three people wearing Nike shoes, twenty-one people wearing Adidas and then a few handful of people wearing Vans and Converse. He thought, a lot of scientific studies could be conducted by people waiting in airports or train stations, and it would certainly save many people a lot of money. The world would be a better place then, according to Alexander Greenwald.

Greta tied up her hair and wore a pair of black glasses. She looked normal to the normal eye, but to Alex she looked prettier than normal. He stood up and walked over to the luggage belt, and laughed when Greta stopped and exclaimed, "Oh my god!"

~

They went to a Japanese restaurant, as suggested by Ryan Ross. Greta had not seen Ryan (and Jon) for almost a year already, and she enjoyed their company immensely, even though she was a little nervous in front of Alex. Whenever Alex said something funny she tried to rearrange her facial expression to show humored, but then she thought that she looked more like a rabid fangirl having her biggest crush in her entire life.

Alex said something, but she didn't catch it, and Jon nudged her, so she went, "What?" Ryan looked disinterested, and drawled, "Alex asked if we want to get a drink at A&amp;K. You want?"

"Hmm, great." She totally wasn't paying attention.

Jon declined, and then halfway to A&amp;K Ryan got down of the cab because he received a call from someone inviting him to some party at somewhere, so there was only Alex and Greta left on the cab.

She paid a little more attention to Alex's monologue.

~

Angels and Kings was a familiar sight to Alex, because of his numerous trips to New York and the numerous blackmails from Pete Wentz and gang. Ryan and him used to come here every Saturday when they were in New York, but then life got boring, and then they moved on to another club, so now the place felt a little bit different. The people were still the same, with some scenesters, some kid with bright Crayola pink sneakers and some scene queen with loud makeup and even louder hair.

On the contrary, Greta looked totally out of place in here, with her long skirt and white blouse and black vest.

Alex held on tightly to Greta's hand, seeming to be afraid that she would get lost in the throng of the crowd, that he would lose her in the midst of the music, and that the bass line from the speakers would separate them. If Greta noticed it, she did not say anything.

They reached the bar pretty quickly, thanks to Alex's haste and Greta's quick walking. The bartender had changed, and it was not the same one that used to serve Alex and Ryan. But then, it was Alex and Greta now, and when Alex thought of their names being put together, he suddenly wanted to kiss Greta. He turned to look at Greta, who was surveying the place, observing the people and the sights and the lights.

"Want a drink?" He sounded like a douchebag, much. Like some weirdo who was trying to get into Greta's figurative pants and thus piling her with drinks... Or maybe he was thinking too much. Greta nodded rather encouragingly, and Alex signaled to the bartender. Three drinks later, Greta's face was flushed red, and his thoughts were wondering.

If there was a lie detector, he'd probably passed the test with flying colors.

~

Greta talked about the Fall Out Boy T-shirt Project, and then talked about how she brought a shirt to New York, and then went on about how it would be great for Alex to sign it, and then she realized what she had said. She stopped, which prompted Alex to say, "Why are you stopping?" Greta shook her head, and muttered, "Oh god, this is all so embarrassing. I can't believe I'm saying all this to you." Alex smiles mysteriously _(Greta immediately fell in love with Alex, again)_ and Greta felt more confident about herself, so she continued about her Project.

"So, about this Project of yours," Alex raised his hands to make air quotes, "Why do you want to include me?"

Greta blushed, and it was a sight, because it emphasized her hair color, which made Greta blush even harder (if such a thing was possible).

"I don't know. When I first met you I thought you of an interesting person." Alex laughed out loud, and Greta shifted in her seat, as if it was something really embarrassing. Alex shook his head and exclaimed, "Oh no, you think that this is embarrassing? Ha! You must have never been with Ryan for a long time."

~

The two of them had been sitting at the bar for close to an hour already, and many of their mutual friends had already come by to say hello and wave goodbye, but they were still talking, talking about the past, sharing about the future, and things in general. Alex ordered more shots, but Greta declined it, because she wanted to be sober when she asked Alex out, (oh yes she was going to do it), and then she got distracted by Alex's tone, and she ordered another shot herself. The night just went on with them laughing, drinking and their shoes touching each other underneath the bartop.

When Greta said, "I'm tired. I should go off now," Alex got the cue and asked for the tab and they walked out of Angels and Kings into the cold and wet street of New York City. The weather had been weird, snowing very little but the air is wet and frosty. Alex took hold of Greta's hands and wrapped his hands tightly around her cold, cold hands and whispered into her ears, "Let's go back to my place." Greta nodded.

~

One hour later, it was darker as the candle flame flickered more and more, until it was almost like a small wavering flame in the midst of the darkness that surrounded Greta and Alex. The whiff of apple was still prominent in the room, even though the candle was dying. She was still lying in Alex's bed, playing with Alex's hair, watching Alex's chest rise up and down in a steady rhythm. She counted his heartbeat thirty-two minutes ago (which she knew from the bright green LED clock next to the bed) and found it really close to her own -- it felt rather creepy and yet magical, like how their hearts would beat together.

"I have an idea."

"For what?"

"Your project. The name." Greta snuggled nearer to Alex, and took in the scent of Alex's cologne and the smell of his shampoo, and stroked his back. "Hmm?"

"Gold motel."

"That sounds sleezy."

"I'm a sleezeball."

Greta smiled, and then wrapped her arm around Alex's neck, felt Alex kissing her forehead and his hand sliding around her waist, and slowly fell asleep.

~

When Alex called the airline agent and shouted at the disgruntled receptionist, Greta raised her eyebrow. Alex hung up the phone, or rather, slammed the phone down, and then put his hand on his hip, and sighed. "She refused to change the ticket. You're stuck on the flight."

"It's okay, Alex. I need to go home anyway, or else my mum will think that I'm murdered in big ol' New York City." Greta rubbed hard at her hair, which was all over the place and hoped that it would dry before she needed to reach JFK, because blow drying was a bitch. She threw the towel across the room, and gave a little victory cry when the towel landed squarely into the laundry basket. "But I can always come back another time?"

Alex shrugged, and went over to sit next to Greta. She smiled, which was something she had been doing a lot since coming to New York, and took Alex's hand in hers.

"Promise me, _you_ will come and visit me?"

Alex looked hard at her hand, before mustering all his courage and energy. "Why not, you move in with me? LA is delicious." Greta pretended to think hard, and Alex wanted to laugh, even though he was a little bit nervous that Greta would reject him. Then Greta said, "Yes", in a softer tone, that Alex had never heard before, and then Alex knew, knew that she would have said "yes" no matter what.

~

Gold Motel's Myspace got a few more thousand hits when there was rumors that The Young Veins might be touring with Gold Motel, and Greta smiled at the rumor. Yes, Alex did suggest that, but that was only because they were talking about touring and life on the road and one thing led to another and that was how word association games came about. Greta did not really miss life on the road like the boys, but she had to agree, there was a certain allure to a consistently bumpy sleep in an extremely small bunk, and the annoying company of her tourmates who were mostly male and dirty and loud. She shut her computer down, and plopped open a book (Jane Austen's _Emma_), switched on some David Gray and started to read.

Then she remembered that when she tried to continue her nightly ritual of reading on tour, Alex would either call or text her to get her out of her bunk (and bus), and then everyone would sit at the curb and start to gossip about people on tour. That was how she knew that Brendon hadn't gotten a girlfriend in high school, how Jon's favorite drink to make is a caramel macchiato and how Alex's favorite color is black. ("Black is technically speaking, not a color, Greenwald." "Oh, whatever, nerd.")

Life was changing, definitely, and it was going back to the past, where everything felt more familiar, everyone felt more at ease and where Alex and her were more than friends. She realized that she would never fall asleep, and decided to unpack some of her stuffs. She took out most of her clothes from the luggage, but folded the two Fall Out Boy t-shirts carefully and put them inside a box, amidst the various tour memorabilia. It had been a fun ride filling the two t-shirts, and now that she's opening another chapter in the book of Greta, it was time to gather fresh memories. She pulled out the roll of masking tape and wrapped it around the box, and then pushed it underneath the bigger cardboard box, which would then get shipped into storage.

~

When Alex told Ryan that Greta was moving into Casa Greenwald Ryan did not raise an eyebrow, but his usual lack of inflection was gone when he started to ask Ryan about the why how and what? Alex smiled but was glad, of course, that his sort-of best friend was actually interested in this.

They settled into their daily routine of eating crunchy lettuce leaves and sipping tomato juices (spiked with a little vodka, not too much as it was still early), and talked about what happened yesterday, last week and last year.

Alex wondered what was Greta eating.

~

**after**  
Greta watches as the printer churns out the laser printed slip that would get her onto the plane later, and squeezes her fist hard because she needs another confirmation that she was really doing this. Bob congratulates her when she told him about Alex and LA, which might or might not be overlapping, but overall he is still very happy for his favorite person. "I hope Alex wouldn't be too jealous of me!" Bob chuckles.

"Oh I hope he would, actually." Greta retorts in jest, but she feels good, really better this time.

~

_Right now another please, just like that  
Like that another one babe  
Kiss me for longer_  
\- "I Am In Love With You", Imogen Heap

**Author's Note:**

> I took a lot of liberties with this story because I wasn't so sure about a lot of the details and facts (despite the best of my research abilities). This fic idea came on a whim, so everything was pretty whimsical. I do not know much about Alex Greenwald, as much as I like to, except that he's just like Ryan Ross, so ridiculously adorable (sometimes). My knowledge of Greta would really just come from a lot of THS videos on Youtube, her Myspace and Twitter and of course, the HCT videos. Feel free to point out any errors. Thanks for reading!


End file.
